


A Remembrance of Things Past

by tinydooms



Category: The Mummy (1999), The Mummy Series
Genre: F/M, Friendship/Love, Memories, Pictures, soft battle couples
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:01:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27049867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinydooms/pseuds/tinydooms
Summary: One of the things that Evie quite liked about Rick was the man-ness of him. Not just his attitudes or his masculine traits, but simply his state of being. She liked seeing his shaving tackle, razor and shaving brush and soap, laid neatly out in the bathroom, liked the little glass bottle of aftershave sitting alongside her bottles of scented toilet water, liked the red and white tub of Brylcreem he combed through his hair.
Relationships: Evy Carnahan O'Connell/Rick O'Connell
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	A Remembrance of Things Past

**A Remembrance of Things Past**

_Cairo, December 1922_

One of the things that Evie quite liked about Rick was the man-ness of him. Not just his attitudes or his masculine traits, but simply his state of being. She liked seeing his shaving tackle, razor and shaving brush and soap, laid neatly out in the bathroom, liked the little glass bottle of aftershave sitting alongside her bottles of scented toilet water, liked the red and white tub of Brylcreem he combed through his hair. Evie’s father, being a Victorian for all of his more liberal beliefs, had never allowed her to see the accoutrements of his toilet, and Jonathan had been off at school for much of Evie’s childhood, so it was interesting to see the ways that Rick took care of himself. 

The rouge locket was out of place, though. Evie noticed it resting on the countertop one morning while cleaning her teeth, popping in to rinse and spit while Rick finished brushing his hair. She tapped it with light fingers. 

“What’s this?”

“Rouge,” Rick said with a small grin, setting down his comb and reaching past her to wash his hands. 

“I know, I have one,” Evie replied, giving him a curious look. “May I?”

“Sure.”

Evie picked up the little locket and turned it over in her hands. It was old and a little battered, the black enamel lid dented and the embossed flower decorating it a little dulled. It was pretty, but it wasn’t expensive: a trinket one could buy in a nice drug store. She turned it over. _Max Factor_ was stamped on the bottom. The rouge inside was all gone, used or broken up. Rick was watching her closely. 

“Well, Holmes? What are your deductions?”

“Well, it belonged to a woman, clearly,” Evie said, “unless you are a secret rouge wearer, of course. It belonged to a woman who was elegant but not wealthy, since Max Factor is a drugstore brand, and it’s old, so you’ve had it a long time. It’s on a strong chain, a new one, so you’ve worn it to keep it safe. Did…did it belong to an old girlfriend?”

“No,” Rick said, taking the little piece of jewelry back. “It was my mother’s.”

“Oh,” Evie said, softly. 

Rick had only mentioned his mother once to her, so far, that first night out from Hamunaptra when he had told them that she had died when he was thirteen. He had been all alone since then, he had said, and seemed embarrassed when they were shocked. Evie still couldn’t imagine the horror of it. When her own parents had died, at least she had had Jonathan and several good family friends to fall back on. Now, however, Rick did not seem unwilling to talk. 

“I worked extra shifts in a drugstore to be able to buy it,” he continued, turning the locket over much as Evie had. “The Christmas I was ten. She worked so hard to keep us, I wanted her to have something pretty. It’s cheap, I know that now, but she wore it until the day she died.” 

“What was her name?”

“Margaret.” Rick gave a small shrug, as though embarrassed or, as Evie was beginning to learn about him, shy. “It’s all I had left of her after she died. We could never afford a picture.”

Evie put her arms around him. Rick stiffened, surprised, and then relaxed against her. 

“I’m so sorry, darling,” she said. “I’m sorry that you lost her, and so young. It must have been awful.”

Rick seemed to sag against her, resting his cheek on her hair. He had never had a chance to really talk about it. “It _was_ awful. I was just a kid, and she was all I had. She was lovely. You would have loved her. She’d have loved _you_.”

Evie kissed his cheek, held him close. “Tell me about her.”

He told her. 

Author's Note: this was written in response to a prompt on Tumblr. If you'd like to request a story, [please feel free](https://tinydooms.tumblr.com/ask)! I love getting messages and comments and prompts. :-) Also, as of 16 October 2020, I am reposting this from "A Book of Life" into it's own one-shot. I didn't like the previous set-up, so I'm fixing it. 


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